Ladies Football Article

Ladies Football Article

The National Appeals Committee will hear the case of Clare’s Banner Ladies club tonight in Tullamore to decide if they will be allowed to play in the Vhi All Ireland Club Championship series. The Banner Ladies club have been banned from playing in the Munster Intermediate Club Championship after failing to complete their county club championship by the deadline set by the Munster Council.

 

Munster Council President Michael Ryan said that all Munster clubs were informed on the 18th July that county championships must be completed by the 14th September to ensure that the All Ireland club fixtures ran on schedule.

 

The Banner Ladies won their first ever county championship title this year beating West Clare Gaels but did so on the 5th October, three weeks after the Munster Council deadline. Clare County PRO Dr Paul McKenna has stated that extenuating circumstances, out of the club’s control, resulted in the delay of the county final and the club should not be punished by being prevented from competing in the All Ireland Club Championships.

 

Clare has only a small number of Ladies Football clubs and as a result a lot of the players represent the county across a number of age grades from U/16 to senior level. The Banner Ladies Club have 11 representatives on the Clare U/16’s team and that team qualified for the U/16B All Ireland final which was scheduled for the 10th August but was then cancelled 24hrs before throw-in due to pitch flooding. Due to the late cancellation of this fixture a round of club games could not be scheduled for that weekend

 

The U/16B final was re-scheduled for the 16th August but was again cancelled 24hrs before throw-in and was eventually played on September 7th. On 6th September Clare’s senior county team played an All Ireland Intermediate semi-final against Longford which effectively ruled out any club games being played that weekend.

 

The backlog caused by missing three weekends was compounded when the Clare Camogie County Board requested that no football games be played on the weekend of September 14th as the county team had would compete that Sunday in the Gala Junior All Ireland Camogie final in Croke Park. Clare’s senior ladies football team played in Croke Park two weeks later in the TG4 All Ireland Intermediate final on September 28th.

 

The Clare County Board scheduled the county club final for the 5th October the soonest date available to them but the Munster Intermediate Club Championship semi-finals were due to be played by the 4th October. The Clare County Board proposed that the Munster fixture be postponed until the 11th October but this request was unanimously denied by the Munster Council.

 

The Clare County Board will plead their case in front of the National Appeals Committee chaired by Munster Vice-President Dan O’Mahony tonight in the hope that the Banner Ladies will be allowed to compete in their first All Ireland Club Championship fixture.